Dogs And Wolves

I think it is a mistake for dog trainers to use too many wolf examples to explain dog behavior. Canis familiaris (the domestic dog) is not Canis lupus (the gray wolf). The idea that the dog is a domesticated version of the wolf has never been proven. It is a theory. There is no way to test that theory, even with genetic samples taken from frozen tundra samples found in permafrost or buried dogs in caves. 

The behavioral set of the wolf is significantly different from the dog. You can’t make conclusions about dog behavior from observing wolf behavior, and furthermore, the amount of actual study of wolves is sparse. A lot of what we rely upon about wolves comes from a handful of naturalists and much of it has never been tested.

 

There is the assumption of homology regarding the physiology of the wolf and dog. That is more easily tested. And then an assumption of homology regarding the behaviors of the wolf and dog, but that is not so easily tested. The way I use wolf behavior to illustrate dog behavior is to use analogy, not homology. Since we can’t go back in history and observe the development of the dog, if that is what happened, it is a too far a stretch to assume that the dog was a human creation derived from the wolf.

 

If you treat a wolf like a dog, you are going to have trouble. If you try to treat a dog like a wolf, you are also going to have trouble. Even street dogs don’t behave, as a group, like a wolf pack. The differences between a dog and wolf are as different as they with a Canis latrans (the coyote). They are all canines, but not the same. 

 

Treating dogs as wolves has led to the “dog whisperer” phenomenon, which has no basis in even the rudimentary knowledge anyone can absorb by reading some texts on wolf and dog behavior. 

 

Dogs aren’t wolves. Stop trying to make them equivalent.